Figures & data
Figure 1 Interaction of a phagocyte with particles of different shapes. The diagram illustrates the uptake of three types of particles: spherical ones with a convex surface of constant curvature (A), bi-lobed particles with a concave neck (B) and long cylindrical particles with parallel contour aspect (C). (A) the internalization of a sphere occurs in two phases. First, the phagocytic cup needs to expand without the application of contractile forces, since otherwise the particle would be repelled (left part). Second, the cup has to contract around the particle (middle) until it can close on top of the particle for separation of the phagosome from the cell surface (right). (B) a bi-lobed particle imposes a conflict on the phagocyte: should the concave neck be taken as the end of the particle (left possibility in the split image) or should the cup continue to progress in search of a more distal end (right possibility). (C) a rod-shaped particle will be drawn into the phagocyte by gliding movement of the phagocytic cup along the particle's constant perimeter.
